With the cases of child abuse being on the rise especially in the recent past, SLT has embarked on this CSR initiative last year with an island wide awareness campaign and media briefing, followed by the first awareness programme conducted at Anuradhapura, the area having recorded the highest number of cases of child abuse during the year 2012. This first programme educated 200 principals, teachers and students about the different forms of child abuse, how to identify it and report it with a view to preventing these incidents from happening in the future.
Since then, the company has been committed towards this cause and with the ongoing guidance of the NCPA, the project has been continued with employees in SLT Offices Island wide coming forward to conduct awareness programmes at schools throughout the year 2014 as well. Up to the end of September 2014, nearly 9000 students in 29 schools across the island have been educated about the various forms of child abuse, how to avoid unethical influences as well as how to identify and report such cases of child abuse and how to prevent it in the future since this is a national issue which should be addressed by the entire community at the national level. By the end of this year, the company plans to educate over 40,000 children from over 200 schools across the island with the help of the company’s island wide network of offices.
Through this project, SLT aims to bring about a safe, secure and healthy environment where children are protected from all forms of abuse, including child labour and protecting the rights of children. These programmes also emphasize the community’s responsibility towards protecting children from abuse of all kinds.
SLT has introduced several innovative products to ensure the protection and safety of children, such as SLT SISU Connect and SLT Web Guard. SISU Connect is a value added service provided by SLT in collaboration with the Ministry of Education to ensure that children are always able to be in touch with their parents no matter where the are physically so that parents are assured of their safety at all times. SLT Web Guard is a web filtering service that ensures that children are able to enjoy a secure and safe internet experience.
World Children’s Day is celebrated throughout the world on different days of the year, and in Sri Lanka it is celebrated on 1st October. On whichever day it is celebrated, the main purpose is to encourage the protection of the rights of children and promote their welfare and safety. Child abuse can take various forms, but the most common types of child abuse maybe either be physical, emotional, sexual or even neglect where the basic needs such as food, safety and medical care are not met, exposing them to danger in terms of health or development. Children also have a right to childhood with education and should not be forced into child labour.
Sri Lanka Telecom, together with NCPA encourages all citizens to be alert and to join them in spearheading this national cause to protect the children in Sri Lanka, as the first step to the prevention of child abuse is effective education and awareness of children, parents as well as the rest of the community.
For any matters relating to child safety or abuse, any person could contact 1929, which is the NCPA’s 24 hour hotline. It can be accessed free – of - charge via any telecom operator. (KH)
